Drowning
by AlphaWolfOfRed67
Summary: "Remember what I said? That know I will be here to bring you back, every second, of every day until you don't need me." It was Damon who woke Stefan up, not Elena. Tag: 05x07 Brotherly feels


A/N: This was written awhile ago but was deleted. I'm re-posting and it wont get deleted again! I went through it and changed some things. Urgh. I hated that episode and I hated how that season started out :P

Anyway. Enjoy!

Episode Tag- S5E7 - Death and the Maiden- It was Damon that woke Stefan not Elena. Cuz I hate her. Literally. Lol

* * *

 _The pain...it was unbearable. I have lived 150 years and not even the piercing of a bullet was comparison to what I was feeling when being locked up in a safe and forced to drown over and over again. My lungs felt like they were on fire as I held onto what breath I had until the pressure started to burn my lungs and the water rushed in like ice. The cold seeping into my flesh and it felt like small icicles were being driven in to every part of my skin._

 _Then I was just dead._

 _I forced my mind to a place where comfort was the only thing I longed for. My subconscious throwing me into an image of me standing in the boarding home with Damon or Elena at my side, talking to me as if I was really there and I held on to that. The hope that one of them would come for me. It was the only thing that kept me sane._

* * *

Stefan laid in his bed but he wasn't lost to a peaceful sleep. He was caught in a hellish nightmare that gripped him tight and refused to let go. His memories came back to him in a wave of agony after Tessa forced them back in place out of anger and it's all he saw even behind closed lids.

His breathing was more like panting, his head rolling side to side restlessly trying to get away from the images plaguing his mind relentlessly.

 _"Hello my shadow self." It was like staring into a mirror because standing before him was an exact image of himself. Out of astonishment, Stefan didn't see the stake that Silas plunged into his abdominal until he felt the pain it brought on._

 _Stefan screamed, but it was to late, he doubled over in agony only to be roughly pushed back into the very safe that was meant for Silas, who closed the latch and locked it. He was thrown into the quarry that immediately filled with water as soon as it made contact._

Stefan's head moved to one side then the other in a fast pace as he could feel every ounce of that suffering all over again. Drowning, over and over again without hope of being freed from his harsh fate.

 _"No..." He breathed out when the water came flowing in from the outside, the fear overcoming every sense as he realized what was in store for him. Nothing but continuous drowning as water filled the safe in a fast pace then his lungs._

Stefan gripped the bed sheets, his neck was strained as he gasped for breath. "No!"

 _He banged his fists on the solid steel door but it was no use as his attempts at getting free slowed as he gave one more scream before the water rose above his head._

Damon set in the chair. His thoughts glued to the fact that they had failed in bringing the witch back to life. Silas was MIA and if Katherine and Elena had another twin wasn't bad enough, Stefan had no memory of who they were and would probably never regain his memories but he didn't really think that was a bad thing.

A noise had him pulling his brows together in confusion and honed in on his vampire hearing to notice the sound came from Stefan, who sounded to be gasping and that's all it took to have him racing to his brother's room.

He stopped at the door and peered at the vampire who was now struggling, tangling himself in the covers .

He cautiously walked over to the bed and he heard the name Stefan kept whispering. "Silas..."

Damon immediately knew what was going on. Stefan was having a nightmare.

"Stefan?" He laid his hand on his shoulder, carefully trying to arouse his brother from whatever dream had him gripped in its mercy.

He didn't expect the reaction he received. Stefan reared up, his eyes red as veins moved around in his skin and teeth ascended. Snarling, as he threw himself forward and at Damon, crashing into him as he pinned him to the wall.

"You, you did this to me!" He screamed, glaring at him but it was as if his eyes were not seeing. Moss green orbs now mirrored that of anger and hatred.

Damon gripped Stefan's hands, the same hands that were trying to choke the life out of him. "Stefan! It's me!" Damon grunted, "It's me." He grounded out trying to get Stefan's eyes to focus.

For the first few seconds, Stefan's eyes continued to stare at him with rage until the red resided back to their normal iris's and he realized that he had Damon in a death grip against the wall and slowly unfolded his hands from Damon's neck before stepping back. "Damon? I'm sorry. I didn't..."

Damon rubbed his neck but continued to study him, "Remind me to never try and wake you up." He rose a brow, Stefan's ferial action surprising him a little.

Stefan's eyes were cast down and he walked over to the window, to the warmth of the sun as it poked through the shades, Damon's gaze glued to the back of his head, wondering about Stefan's odd behavior.

"You know...there was these moments in that safe..."

Demon's eyes grew wide. "You remember." He deadpanned stepping closer to his brother.

Stefan didn't answer but kept talking, "This stillness in time...when I was dead, right before I was about to come back to life."

Damon closed the distance between them until he was standing behind Stefan as he took in his confession but it was the sadness in his words that had him truly listening.

"I would think about things in the past that made me happy. Things that gave me hope." Stefan's head tilted to the side before he fully turned to face his Damon. "All these things kept me sane. They pushed me to hang on, when all I wanted to do was give up and turn off my humanity."

They locked eyes and in that moment Damon not only saw how much it affected Stefan. Damon's gaze travelled to the floor. Stefan's confession was like a punch to the gut. He knew his brother held on to that hope, the hope that Damon would save him from the torture he endured all those months but Damon had let him down. If that didn't add on to the guilt Damon was already feeling, the fact that he was to wrapped up in his time with Elena to notice Silas was impersonating Stefan, made it that much harder to grasp. Damon raised his eyes to look at Stefan, to really examine him and he didn't like what he was seeing.

Stefan was paler than usual. His body was noticeably shaking and his hair was messier than Damon's seen it in a long time. It was the look in Stefan's eyes though, the dead, sorrowful deepness that fills their depth that had Damon reaching out to place a hand on Stefan's shoulder and he did something that surprised the young Salvatore. He pulled Stefan forward and right against his chest.

Stefan tensed briefly before melting into the embrace. He could feel the small tremors that ran though his body as he wrapped his arms around him, the fear that still consumed him by being in darkness once again but he didn't talk. Stefan needed to talk, needed more than anything, for him to listen.

"But eventually, the pain, it took those moments away from me to." Stefan's voice shook with untold emotion.

"I'm sorry, Stefan." Damon whispered, tightening his hold on him in some kind of way to offer comfort.

"Every time I close my eyes, I can see Silas stabbing me. I can feel myself drowning, and I need to make it stop..." Stefan sobbed.

Damon pulled away. Stefan's eyes were clouded over with pain and not the physical kind. It was a wound so deep, that it went beyond any damage that was physical and turned into an emotional torture and all Damon could see was the brother that he should have been watching out for since the day his mother placed a newborn Stefan into his arms.

His hand gripped the back of Stefan's neck. "Don't worry, Stef. You're here and I won't let it happen again. Okay? Right now, we need to focus on Bonnie."

"Damon, I am either going to go insane and die or I'm going to turn off my humanity...or both." The defeat was clear in his voice.

"No. It's not going to happen. Remember what I said? That know I will be here to bring you back, every second, of every day until you don't need me. That goes for now to. You'll get through this." Damon repeated the same words to Stefan that he had that night and he meant every word and this time Stefan pulled him into an embrace. "I'm sorry I wasn't there but I am now..."

"Thank you, Damon." He sighed, accepting Damon's apology.

Smiling, he figures the show of affection lasted longer than he would have liked and Damon pulled away from him and smirked, "Now if you don't mind, there is a bottle of bourbon with my name on it. Care to join brother?"

Stefan nodded. "Why not."

Damon walked out of the room, giving him one last glance before doing so.

Stefan's attention went back to the window and he smiled. The sun and the warmth that came with it was proof that he was no longer buried in a never-ending cycle of death and it may continue to haunt is thoughts but he was there and he was sure he could get past even this. Especially with Damon there to help.


End file.
